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Today in Rock History – February 22

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beatles -sgtpeppers1967, The Beatles record the piano chord used on “A Day in the Life.” David Crosby pops by Abbey Road studios for a visit.

1968, The Who appeared at the Fillmore West in San Francisco.

1968, Genesis releases its first single, “The Silent Sun.” Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks later say they wrote the song in the style of the Bee Gees to impress producer and Bee Gees fan Jonathan King.

1969, Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared at The Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England. Support act was David Bowie performing a one-man mime act.

1969,  The Beatles begin their sessions for Abbey Road with a take of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy”).

1970, Appearing at The Roundhouse Spring Festival in Camden, London, David Bowie and the Hype, (first live performance of the new band), along with Bachdenkel, Groundhog and Caravan.

1971, George Harrison was fined and banned from driving for a year.

1972, Elvis Presley and his wife Priscilla were legally separated. The couple had married in 1967.

1972, Wings played the last date on their 11-date unannounced UK tour at Oxford University.

1973, An interesting double bill, REO Speedwagon and Cheech & Chong at the Exposition Gardens – Youth Building in Peoria, Illinois.

1973, Black Sabbath played at the Palasport, Vicenza, Italy.

1973, The Grateful Dead performed at Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois.

david-bowie-rebel-rebel1974, “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie entered the singles chart, reaching number five the following month.

1976,  Florence Ballard of the Supremes died of cardiac arrest at age 32. Ballard was cut from the group in 1967 following such chart topping hits as “Baby Love,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” and “You Can’t Hurry Love.”

1975, Scottish group The Average White Band went to number one on the US singles chart with “Pick Up The Pieces,” the band’s album AWB also went to the top of the US charts.

1977, Electric Light Orchestra performed at Cobo Arena, Detroit.

1978, The Police appear as blondes in an advertisement for Wrigley’s chewing gum and decide to keep the look.

1979, Dire Straits played their first American show when they appeared in Boston.

1981, Rush played at Alumni Auditorium, Davenport, Iowa

1987, Andy Warhol, pop artist and producer died after a gall bladder operation. The founder of the Pop Art movement, produced and managed The Velvet Underground, designed the 1967 Velvet Underground And Nico “peeled banana” album cover and The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers album cover.

1989, A category for Heavy Metal was included at the Grammy Awards for the first time. Metallica performed on stage, but the award went to Jethro Tull. Many audience members booed. Meanwhile, Bobby McFerrin won Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year for “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” Tracy Chapman is named Best New Artist and Tina Turner won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for Tina Live in Europe.

Born on February 22: Bobby Hendricks, The Drifters (1938); John Sparks, Dr. Feelgood (1953); and Scott Phillips, Creed (1973)

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Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Andy’s Chest” by Lou Reed

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“Swoop, swoop, oh baby rock, rock…” Only early ‘70s radio would play a song with blatant references to giving head and not have a problem with the lyrical content. Such was the atmosphere that welcomed Lou Reed’s second solo record after leaving the Velvet Underground and his biggest hit “Walk On The Wild Side.” If Lou standing on the back cover with a huge boner in his pants wasn’t enough, fans were treated to his usual lyrical fare – transvestites, drug use, Andy Warhol, frequent hookups and, or course, homosexuality. The album was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson who had been profoundly influenced by The Velvet Underground and had regularly covered several of their songs in their live sets. In fact, this song was originally a Velvet Underground outtake from 1969 sessions that went unreleased until the mid-1980s Velvet Underground compilation albums “VU” and “Another View.” Sundazed Records will be issuing a box set of all of the Velvet Underground vinyl albums this fall that is supposed to include the great lost 1969 Velvets album. “Transformer” came out in 1972, the same year as Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” album, and in my estimation it has stood the test of time much better. With that said, it was Bowie’s golden production touch (and background vocals on this track) that revived Reed’s career, giving him his biggest album and hit. Bowie would go on to resuscitate the careers of Mott The Hoople and Iggy Pop from here, while Reed continues to release records on his own.

Our Tributes to Lou Reed

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velvet-underground-1966The sad news of Lou Reed’s passing on October 27th, 2013 stirred up a lot of emotions.

There is one person here at InternetFM.com that knew more about the co-founder of the Velvet Underground that any of us.

Eric Berman had all of the recordings by both Reed and the Velvets.  He saw Reed numerous times over the years, and even met him on one occasion.

He sat down in the studio and talked at length about both the wealth of material from Reed and what he meant to the music business.

Listen to his comments.

Also, Steve Leventhal dedicated his 10/30/13 WMXM show to Lou Reed, and included some of Eric’s comments.

 

Velvet Underground at Odds with Warhol Foundation over Banana Cover Licensing

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In the story that first appeared in the New York Post, among other places, the Velvet Underground have filed suit in Federal Court claiming that the Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts illegally licensed its iconic banana cover from the VU’s debut album.  Even though the artwork was conceived by Andy Warhol, the Velvet’s claim that the foundation’s licensing the logo for use in some iPad products implies their endorsement of the product.

While Warhol never trademarked the banana, the band used it in its 1995 box set, and did license it to Absolut Vodka for a promotional campaign in 2001, and thus representing that it was synonymous with the Velvet Underground.

Read more in the New York Post